Happy Monday!! It's a few days into week two of my weight loss journey and I wanted to start the week off with a guest post by my little sister who recently lost 50 lbs! I am so inspired by her, and so excited by her progress. She sent me the before and after photos and her personal weight loss story to share with all of you.
My Name is Abigail, and just like so many others I’ve struggled with my weight for years. I could never go clothes shopping without wanting to bulldoze the store or imagining punching all the employees. I would wear giant Sweatshirt’s year round to hide everything, and for almost every New Years my goal would be "Loose Weight," but of course I never did. The beginning of 2013 went a little different though. I had just graduated high school, and I got tired of avoiding mirrors and the constant complaint from courts saying “Its not okay to destroy super stores and injure their employee’s because you don't’ fit in their clothes.” So I thought it was about time I make some changes, and I did.
In January I made a workout schedule and I started eating healthier, It was terrible. I hated every second of my cardio and who in their right mind likes carrots and celery more than a donut? Whoever these people are who say health food is just as tasty as junk food is a liar. Throughout the first week I was so irritable from not eating what I wanted, and sweating enough to fill a pool that I wanted to kill everyone and anyone who tried to talk to me. I thought about cake and chicken nuggets more than any person ever should, and when the first week ended I cracked. I think I ate an entire chocolate cake and loved every second of it. But before this becomes an erotic junk food story, I’ll skip ahead and tell you that even though I was miserable I stuck to working out and eating relatively healthy. Thankfully through my persistence it became much easier to stick to it.
For those who know me well, I never talk about one thing for a long period of time; I talk about everything in a short period of time, which as many of you probably guessed is called being ADHD. Unfortunately I am ADHD so that made it hard for me to stay motivated in my workouts. I started out exercising on an elliptical for thirty minutes everyday, and I didn’t stay enthusiastic about that for long. I searched online for different cardio routines to do, and because I couldn't buy a gym pass it had to all be at home. Luckily I had two punching bags, and elliptical and a treadmill so that widened the search a bit. I came across a couple of routines that I liked so I wrote them down. After about a week I had found a lot more routines online that I liked so I decided to write them down as well and put them in a binder so I had quick access to them. I am so glad I decided to do that because I use that binder everyday. From looking for routines over the past 5 months I probably have more than eighty or so different routines in it, If my ADHD was a person he’d be in love with that binder, he would take her hand in marriage then soon have four kids and own a lovely home on the countryside. But I digress, now whenever someone asks me what workouts I do I’m not sure what to say because I have done almost everything. I tried video programs, an elliptical machine, floor workouts, kickboxing, dancing, riding a bike, strength training, walking and jogging on a treadmill, Intervals, High Intensity Interval Training, Hiking, I’ve even played Just Dance and gotten so into it that I count it as a workout.
The hardest thing for me through this was my diet. I thought a lot about if I should start a specific diet, do detoxes, or count calories and I finally decided to not do any of it. Being two or three months into my new schedule and already knowing that I had trouble with not eating sweets, I thought it would be pointless to try and cut sweets and other junk food’s completely out of my diet. The stress of craving those foods was doing more damage to my body than eating them would ever do. Now I’m not encouraging eating cake for every meal or anything like that, my personal thoughts on it is if you are craving something go ahead and eat it. Mindful eating has become my diet. I don’t count calories I just keep track of what I eat and try not to eat more fruits and veggies than I normally do. I started out hating all vegetables and avoided them but now I love carrots, snap peas, cucumbers, and baby spinach so much! I eat them daily for snacks and with my meals. There are days that I want to only eat junk and I have to stop myself but those days are mostly when I’m menstruating so I have some sort of an excuse. I think the most important thing I try and remember everyday is not to stress myself out and be able to eat what I want without feeling guilty.
Now I think it’s important to add that I didn’t decide to keep exercising to get “Skinny” or to “Have a hot Bod.” It was definitely one of the reasons I started, though I think if it was the only thing that I wanted I would have stopped in January. I keep exercising and eating better because it made me feel happy and content with my life. I am Bipolar and have been extremely depressed for years. I’ve been in and out of a rehabilitation center four times, tried many medications for my disorder that seemed to not help at all. All of those things made my life miserable and the reason I kept exercising was because I didn’t have to take mind numbing medications for me to feel happy. Now, I am telling the people who are reading this very personal things not because I love telling people that I’m crazy, but because I want them to know that being skinny or pretty will not make you happy or make life any easier or more enjoyable. Being confident in life and with your decisions you make everyday will make life a beautiful place and that is why I love to exercise.
Any day that I start feeling depressed the moment I step on that treadmill I smile and lift my head to the sky. I am now only taking medications for my ADHD and have never been happier in my life. I may not be at my goal weight and I may not look like a Victoria’s Secret model, but when I look in the mirror I see a pride in myself that I have never had before. Exercising every day has become an enjoyable experience instead of a dreaded waste of energy. Exercise is the best antidepressant I have ever taken, and believe me I’ve taken just about every one.
After about five months I’ve lost about fifty pounds. I am 5’8” and at my biggest I was 220 pounds I am now 170 pounds and happier than a Piglet in a mud bath, whatever that means. I’m going to end this post by saying don’t exercise so the world will love you, exercise so your mind and body will thank you.
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